Sunday, 28 April 2013

As you can probably tell from these pictures, yesterday was the most surreal and best day I have ever had thanks to my blog. Elodie and I were invited along to Hyperlink at the Tate this weekend which is a 3-day long festival celebrating art, music and fashion. After browsing the programme I saw that there was a Rankin workshop and knew the 2 of us has to get a place! During our 2 hour slot we got the chance to work with Rankin on his Destroy project where we had our pictures taken and then had to destroy the prints.

In all honesty this was an exciting but terrifying experience. As a fashion blogger one would think I'm easy breezy in front of the camera, well I am when it's my Mum taking my photos, stick me in front of Britain's most famous photographer and it's a whole other story. That being said as soon as I stepped into the studio (after hair and make up of course) in front of the big bright lights all my anxieties slipped away. Rankin has the amazing ability to make a subject feel instantly at ease and relaxed in front of the camera that I was able to soak up the blaring music and just enjoy my 5 minutes of being snapped. He directed me and told me I was doing a great job which made the whole experience easy. I absolutely loved it!

Once the photography was done Rankin choose a picture to be used in the
Destroy project and after all the photoshop business it was time to play
around with paint and glitter to our hearts content. It felt wrong to
destroy such an incredible photo but once I had an idea of what I wanted
to do I got down and dirty on the crafts table. I went for a bit of a
Ziggy Stardust theme with lots of bright colours and way too much
glitter. The end results was totally OTT but I love it.

After the work was done we chatted with Rankin and goofed around taking
photos of each other. I got him to snap a few shots of Elodie and me on
my camera which he said was very nice despite the massive crack in the screen. He even posed for a few shoots in my glasses which totally didn't fit him!
All the prints were hung up on the wall with the Destroyed versions
underneath which will be on display throughout the festival. I'm not
sure what is going to happen to them afterwards but hopefully they'll
find a good home.

Hyperlink is still running today and there are plenty of art, fashion and music related workshops going on for free so if you get the chance to go down to the Tate I thoroughly recommend it. This experience is something I will never forget and am eternally grateful to the Tate for inviting me along. It's not everyday you get to work with one of your favourite artists and now I have a lovely photo hanging in my hallway taken by the one and only Rankin that I will cherish forever.